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Tunbi 2

Name

Summary

Tunbi 2 had an estate in east Hampshire TRE assessed at 3 hides from Earl Godwine (Godwine 51).

Distribution map of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

List of property and lordships associated with this name in DB

Holder 1066

Shire	Phil. ref.	Vill	DB Spelling	Holder 1066	Lord 1066	Tenant-in-Chief 1086	1086 Subtenant	Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value	Conf.	Show on Map
Shire Hampshire	Phil. ref. 21,7	Vill Sunwood	DB Spelling Tunbi	Holder 1066 Tunbi 'of Sunwood'	Lord 1066 Godwine, earl	Tenant-in-Chief 1086 Roger, earl	1086 Subtenant Walter 'the man of Earl Roger'	Fiscal Value 3.00	1066 Value 4.00	1086 Value 5.00	Confidence B	Map
Totals								Fiscal Value	1066 Value	1086 Value

Profile

Tunbi 2’s estate was at Sunwood in east Hampshire, in the South Downs and next to the border with Sussex. His estate was called Seneorde in DB and although the generic of the modern place-name has developed to become ‘wood’ it was originally Old English worð ‘enclosure’, often used in the sense of a curtilage (Coates 1989: 158).

DB states that Tunbi 2 held his estate of Earl Godwine (Godwine 51), which indicates that Godwine had been his lord but it is not clear if this was by commendation or dependent tenure. That it was perhaps the former is suggested by DB’s note that Sunwood was not a part of Chalton, an extensive and nearby Godwine manor recorded in the previous entry, but certainty is not possible. What is significant, however, is that Earl Godwine died in 1053 whereas DB implies that Tunbi 2 was still holding the estate at the time of the Conquest; it is possible that Tunbi held the estate under Godwine’s widow Gytha 1 during the intervening thirteen years (cf. Williams 1980: 177).

DB also notes that in 1086 the woodland of Sunwood could only support four pigs because the greater part of it had been destroyed by the wind; however, it is not clear is this damage dated back to Tunbi’s tenure or had occurred more recently.

This was the only estate recorded in DB as being held TRE by someone called Tunbi and is far removed from those of people called by the possibly related names Thormoth, Thormund or Tumi and so there is no reason to consider Tunbi 2 in connection with any other estate or person.

Bibliography

Coates 1989: R. Coates, The Place-Names of Hampshire (London, 1989)

Williams 1980: A. Williams, ‘Land and power in the eleventh century: the estates of Harold Godwineson’, Anglo-Norman Studies 3 (1980), 171-87